Eddi La Marra has boosted his 2013 FIM Superstock 1000 title campaign in dramatic style by surviving a finish line tangle with Sylvain Barrier to sneak victory at Assen.

A race that would see La Marra, Barrier and Niccolo Canepa all share the lead in the run up to a breathless final lap, Barrier went into the final revolution out front having snatched the initiative on the penultimate lap, but La Marra would fight back with a bold pass into Ramshoek.

Undeterred, Barrier proceeded to attempt a determined dive into the last corner Geert Timmer chicane, but while he was able to get beneath La Marra, the Italian attempted to get the better run out of the bend, sending them side-by-side on the dash to the line.

However, Barrier's effort to hold onto his advantage by running La Marra wide would result in the pair clashing hard, albeit not enough to prevent the Ducati man from nosing ahead by a mere 0.023secs.

Indeed, the contact between the two rivals almost had the effect of allowing the close-following Canepa to grab the win, the Italian missing out by 0.106secs himself in what was a blanket finish.

Prior to the grandstand finish, victory looked to be going the way of a Barni Ducati rider as Canepa led the opening laps, before La Marra moved ahead on lap five of 13. Barrier, meanwhile, was forced to recover from a tardy start that left him battling for several laps to get past Leandro Mercado.

Once disposed of the Pedercini Kawasaki rider, Barrier set off in pursuit of the Ducatis ahead, but while his charge was good enough to see him lead with just a lap to go, he would ultimately miss out.

Behind the fight for the win, Mercado became engaged in an inter-Kawasaki tussle with Jeremy Guarnoni and Romain Lanusse, the Argentine eventually getting the better of the young Frenchmen to grab fourth place.

Further back, Ondrej Jezek circulated in a quiet seventh position aboard the SK Energy Ducati Panigale, ahead of Lorenzo Savadori, who fought his way back to eighth after running wide at the first turn, Christoffer Bergman and Marco Bussolotti.

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